Repository | Book | Chapter

This chapter looks at both what New Atheism has to say about gender and how it is itself performing gender. In order to explore these questions, we will first examine what New Atheism has had to say on gender by scrutinising each of the "four horsemen's' main publications on religion. This is followed by a discussion of Ayyan Hirsi Ali's public introduction to the circle of four at the 2012 Melbourne Global Atheist Convention and the contribution made by this female face of New Atheism. We then go on to contextualise this by pondering the relationship between gender and atheism in general as well as New Atheism in particular. The ways in which the New Atheist protagonists perform masculinities invite us to reflect on the fact that these are specifically intellectual masculinities. Finally, some elements for an answer to the question of New Atheism's gender are assembled—along with more questions for future research.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-54964-4_9

Full citation: